Turkey discovers gas in country's Thrace region

The Energy and Natural Resources Ministry announced on Friday a discovery of a small amount of gas in Turkey's Thrace, located in the country's northwest region.

The statement on the ministry's official Twitter account said: "After continuous surveys and exploration, we have discovered a small gas field in Thrace. We are going to examine the field on Monday and disclose the details."

In late January, Canadian energy company Valeura reported that findings from the İnanlı-1 test well in Turkey's Thrace basin resulted in increased confidence in the area's potential for gas fracking.

Valeura said that along with their Norwegian partner Equinor, they successfully finished drilling and logging the Inanli-1

appraisal well. "These results further support the interpretation of a basin-centered gas accumulation in the Thrace Basin. We are encouraged by the results and now look forward to drilling Devepinar-1, 20 kilometers west, to prove that the play is pervasive across the basin," Valeura CEO Sean Guest said at the time.

The company has officially detailed a large potential gas resource in western Turkey. "Now our attention is turning to the completion and testing program for İnanlı-1. With several reservoir sweet spots and intervals of increased natural fracturing identified, we are eager to test flow rates and are focused squarely on starting the completion process," Guest noted.

Mining survey in Africa,

Central Asia and Balkans

Conducting mining exploration operations in the homeland, Turkey also made global mining surveys in overseas countries. General Directorate of Mineral Research and Exploration (MTA) General Manager Cengiz Erdem told Turkish daily Sabah that the directorate established firms in Sudan and Uzbekistan and acquired a license for mining exploration and noted that a couple of countries in the African continent will also be added to the list soon. "We are primarily interested in African, Central Asian and Balkan countries. Following our efforts, we have reached agreements with two countries, the one first being Sudan and the other Uzbekistan," Erdem said and continued: "The companies in these two countries are not representative offices but subsidiaries of MTA. Our firm in Sudan has started operations, and we are now working on reviving the company in Uzbekistan."

Erdem also noted that the organization has no local partners in the countries of operation.

will conduct survey and exploration operations for three years in Sudan. "After three years of exploration, we are going to establish another company that will provide jobs for Sudanese people," Dönmez said. The new firm will operate the mining fields, the minister noted.